Newsletter

Savannah tells residents 'Stay off the lawn' as it preps to impose $15 tickets

Cleo Warren doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.

On a recent afternoon, city of Savannah senior property maintenance inspector Salimary Mojica Ravelo knocked on her door to ask an occupant inside to move his car off the front lawn.

A worn dirt path across the yard was evidence that parking in the yard was routine. Ravelo’s visit was a polite request, but soon, inspectors will issue $15 citations for each offense. Cars that park within five feet and are parallel to an existing driveway are not cited.

“I think you should be able to park a car in your yard if it’s your property,” Warren said. “As long as it’s not broken down for months at a time.”

A short distance away from Warren’s Stillwood Avenue home, other Windsor Forest neighbors were glad to see the enforcement. Residents, particularly in the southside district that Alderman Tony Thomas represents, see yard parking as a key contributor to a run-down look, on par with graffiti, littering or overgrown lawns, which they say contributes to the de-valuation of their neighborhoods.

“We don’t like to see how they destroy the yard,” said Maria Torriente. “We’re proud of our neighborhood, and we don’t want the blight.”

Torriente shares the opinion with some other residents that a $15 fine isn’t enough. She suggests a $50 fine, “something that would hurt.”

Thomas is sympathetic. As many southside homes have become rental houses, the occupancy rate has increased. It’s not unusual, he said, to see several cars filling a driveway and two or three more parked on one lawn.

The differing property rights opinions tend to divide along the lines of renter versus owner and young versus old.

“The retired people like spending time in their yards and making it look good,” Ravelo said. “A lot of the younger people are like, ‘I have five or six cars at my house, and I should be able to park where I want.’”

Russ Sill, a candidate last year for City Council, railed against yard parking while campaigning and often calls 311 to report illegally parked vehicles. Cars that roll up off the street can break up curbs and sidewalks, he said.

City street maintenance workers rarely get such reports, said Buddy Bishop, director of the department. When curbs do get broken, replacing cement ones costs $22 per linear foot. The granite curbs in historic neighborhoods cost $40 per linear foot, he said.

Warren joins a chorus of other cited neighbors who think the city should pursue higher priorities.

“They could fix those streets,” she said, pointing to a big dip in the pavement in front of her home. “It tears cars up, especially if they don’t know the neighborhood. Why are they worried about my property when they’re causing damage to other people’s property?”

IT’S AN ORDINANCE

Most residents notified about cars illegally parked in yards question how the city can tell them what to do on their own property.

The last paragraph of Section 302.8, which covers motor vehicles in the property maintenance ordinances, states: “It shall be unlawful to place an automotive vehicle, boat or trailer-type vehicle on the front yard of the premises unless placed on an established driveway or placed parallel and within five feet of an established driveway.”